


Renegades

by unknowntrombone



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst, F/M, Finn-centric, Force-Sensitive Finn, Hurt/Comfort, Sexual Content, Whump, not kylo or hux friendly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-28
Updated: 2016-05-28
Packaged: 2018-07-10 15:40:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6991726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowntrombone/pseuds/unknowntrombone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few years have passed since the destruction of Hosnian Prime and the defeat of the Resistance at Starkiller Base. Rey waits for her family in the sands of Jakku, Poe sits in a First Order prison camp biding his time and preparing for his escape, and Finn is almost ready to become a high ranking Force-sensitive in the Knights of Ren. Then, during a routine exercise, Finn crashes his ship...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Renegades

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this headcanon about Finn as a potential Knight of Ren: http://tora42.tumblr.com/post/145013831109/so-i-got-a-theory-about-these-assholes

At first, Rey thought it was thunder. The sign of a coming rainstorm, rare as they were on Jakku. Yet the sky was clear and she could see the sun beginning to dip below the horizon. Surely if a storm were coming, clouds would be rolling in. She reasoned then that it must have been a meteor. Yet meteors were not known to strike Jakku at this time of year. There was one other thing that would cause a deafening noise and the ground to shake: A crashed ship. 

Rey squinted as she scanned the horizon. Standing out from the dusky sky was a plume of black smoke. In her mind's eye, she pictured a fiery pile of twisted wreckage. The unmistakable smell of burning metal. An engine that the atmosphere had long since overheated. She pictured scrap, piles upon piles of fresh scrap, not covered in decades of rust but new and unworn, if slightly charred. More new scrap than she had seen in her lifetime.

Feet pounding through the sand, Rey scurried toward the direction of the ship. Her heart was pounding and her breath was racing. Yet she did not slow her pace. The more time passed, the more likely it was that other savengers would find the ship. There was nothing more heartbreaking than trekking for miles toward a site only to find that it had been picked completely clean. 

The plume of smoke drew closer as she ran. The acrid smell was beginning to fill her nostrils. Rey threw her knapsack on the ground and pulled out a rag. She tied it around her nose and mouth. This kept the smoke out of her lungs but did little to dampen the smell. Among the burning rubber and metal was the unmistakable odor of charred human flesh. That scent brought her back to when she was small, to winding alleys and crowded market stalls, to roasting hands and feet of every color shape and size, to shouting and pointing in unfamiliar languages, and to having to run for her life so she wouldn’t become meat herself. Life as a solitary scavenger was hard, but fewer people around meant there was less of a chance of running into those who wanted to use her body for their own disgusting purposes. 

Soon, the smoke became too thick for Rey to see very far. At any moment, another scavenger could come and try to fight with her over the scrap. With a firm grip on her staff, she pushed forward until the ground before her was littered with twisted metal shards and pieces of wire. Rey scanned the ground with as much care as she could both to see if she could find anything of use and to keep herself from tripping. One bad fall or a cut on her foot could easily lead to a slow death. 

The treasures that Rey did find would be too hot to touch so she used her staff to guide them into her blanket. One day, she could afford a Bantha but for now she could only take what she could carry on her speeder. Her blanket was becoming very heavy when she found the first body. Rey was familiar with death, human and alien alike. Yet she still had to force herself not to flinch away, the bile rising from the back of her throat. On the body was a First Order uniform. Men and women of the First Order did not usually come to as remote of a place as Jakku but when they did they were a terrifying sight. With the destruction of Hosnian Prime and the defeat of the Resistance, the officers of the regime had only become bolder. Rey did note that they looked far less intimidating when they were dead. 

The officer before her was male, his dark hair was in a military cut, trim at the sides, and the uniform he wore had insignia she had never before seen. She thought to herself that he could not be much older than she. For a brief moment, she felt sad. 

Rey pushed her grief away as quickly as it had come. Scrap wasn't the only valuable thing she could find in a wreck like this and it was very likely that a man of such status could have something on him that would fetch a good price. Rey knelt down so she could get a better look at what he had. It was then that she noticed the man was still breathing. 

“Oh druk!” Rey muttered under her breath as her mind began to spin. Any First Order officer was dangerous if he was living. The smart thing to do would be to wait for this one to expire. The wait would not be long. But, First Order or no, the man before her was still a man. Rey had seen death many times, but she never killed anyone who hadn’t attacked her first much less left another to die. Yes, it would be wise for her to take her scrap, turn around, and leave. Yet she knew that if she did just that, the regret and guilt would haunt her for the rest of her life. 

With a sigh, Rey tipped her blanket over. At least a hundred credits worth of scrap fell to the ground, a bounty that would be left for another wretch more fortunate than herself. Then, she grabbed the man by his leather boots, and dragged him out of the smoke. 

Once the air began to clear, Rey took the rag off of her face. Behind her, she could see a trail of blood from her going back to the wreckage. Rey pulled out her canteen, wet her rag, and tried to find where it was coming from, eventually tracing it to a laceration in his right shoulder. She pressed against it with both hands until the bleeding stopped. Then, she lifted him up as best she could, slung his arm around her neck, and carried him back to her speeder so she could head home.


End file.
